Geely's Volvo sees electrified cars reaching 10 pct of sales in 2020

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

STOCKHOLM, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Chinese-owned Volvo Car Group said on Thursday it expected electrified cars to account for a tenth of its total sales in around four years, a sharp rise from the current share of roughly 1.5-2 percent.

Volvo said it will build a fully electric car for sale by 2019 and develop an entirely new range of electrified smaller cars. The carmaker also said it planned to launch an anticipated new compact car in 2017 based on its Compact Modular Architecture, its first platform jointly developed with Geely.

“We believe that the time has come for electrified cars to cease being a niche technology and enter the mainstream,” Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement.

Volvo Car Group expects annual sales of around 800,000 cars in 2020. It sees sales of close to 500,000 cars this year, with robust European demand and improvement in the United States off-setting a slump in China, the world’s biggest auto market.

Total sales at Volvo, bought by China’s Geely from Ford in 2010, are up 2 percent so far this year at 346,146 cars, driven by strong demand for the firm’s XC60 and XC90 models.